Sheena Bora murder: CBI was not convinced of Peter Mukerjea's claims of innocence

In a fresh twist in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case, the CBI arrested Indrani Mukerjea’s husband Peter just hours after submitting the chargesheet last evening. Sources claimed Peter has been booked under Section 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

Dr Nitin Suryavanshi from JJ Hospital arrives at the CBI office in Colaba for a medical checkup of Peter Mukerjea. Pic/Shadab Khan

Confirming Peter’s arrest, CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh told mid-day that he would be interrogated and produced in the court today. When asked if Peter was booked for his involvement in the conspiracy and whether his arrest was the outcome of the grilling he was subjected to over the last few days, she said, “I am not privy to this information at this stage and cannot say anything further.”

Sources added that though the CBI has invoked the Information Technology Act in the chargesheet, Peter’s name wasn’t mentioned anywhere. A source informed that a supplementary chargesheet will be filed against Peter, once his custodial interrogation is over. A senior CBI officer, requesting anonymity, said, “The entire task [investigation], since day one, is being executed by the special unit from Delhi, which has an all India jurisdiction. This was done because the Western Region officials here were busy with ongoing probes.” Around 10 pm last night, a doctor from JJ Hospital was summoned to the CBI office to conduct Peter’s medical checkup.

(Inputs by Vinod Kumar Menon)

90-day deadline

The Special Crime Unit of the CBI submitted a 60-page summary of the chargesheet against the three accused Indrani Mukerjea, her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyam Rai yesterday. A delay to file the chargesheet beyond the mandatory period of 90 days would have helped the accused to seek bail. The deadline to file the chargesheet was to expire on Sunday.

Not adding upSources from CBI said investigating officers were not convinced with Peter’s statements, which were marred with discrepancies.>> CBI officers believed that though Peter kept claiming that he was unaware of Sheena’s murder, he was not completely truthful

>> They also claim that Peter is suspected to have booked the Chevrolet Optra, which was used to dump Sheena’s body >> CBI claimed that Indrani had said Peter was aware of the murder details, however Peter kept denying this>> Interrogators said that Peter had stopped Rahul Mukerjea from pursuing the case with the police when Sheena went missing